City Council mulls zone changes, conditional uses

PRIEST RIVER — It was a busy evening for City Council last Monday as the meeting started off with three public hearings.

The public hearings included a zone changes, adding residential use to the city’s industrial zone, and a conditional use permit request for a residence within an industrial zone.

The zone changes — primarily for parcels located along Highway 2 between the Eagles Nest Motel and Spartan Storage, as well as some along Highway 57 and various other areas — were requested by Bryan Quayle, city planning and zoning director. When council members passed an ordinance with several zone change amendments last year, Quayle said they would take it on a “test drive” and come back to council with any additional changes that may be needed.

“The calls that we keep getting, meeting with property owners about their intended uses, potential uses of the property, expansion of their existing uses — we found that in the areas that we have presented to you, we felt these needed additional consideration,” Quayle told council members during the public hearing.

If the zone changes are ultimately approved, many of the businesses along the south side of Highway 2 would change from commercial to mixed-use commercial or mixed-use residential. Some of the businesses along Highway 57, on the other hand, such as Mama Mac’s Gas & Grocery, would go from mixed-use residential to commercial. There are about 30 properties on the list proposed by Quayle.

“All uses that are there, no matter what happens with the zoning, it doesn’t change any requirements that they have for the existing operations,” Quayle said. “Everything gets grandfathered in ... All grandfathered uses that were legally established continue on.”

There was no public testimony on the proposal, and no action was taken by council members as they will take up a decision on the proposed zone changes during the Aug. 5 meeting.

The second part of the public hearing, to allow residential uses in an industrial zone, was related to the third item as well. The proposals date back to a request by the owner of Olde Country Foods in the industrial park area of Shannon Lane, who approached council last year requesting he be allowed to live in an apartment within the industrial building.

“We are proposing to amend your zoning ordinance, in the industrial zone, to allow conditional uses — to allow a conditional use at this point — and that is a residential use associated with industrial use, such as caretakers, owners or employees,” Quayle said.

Per the conditions, the owner would also need to provide written acknowledgment that they are in an industrial zone, which can come with noise, odor, light and other issues associated with industrial uses. Mayor Jim Martin and council requested Quayle add conditions to limit applicants to a single residential use, and the applicants will have to go through the conditional use process for approval.

Again, there was no public comment save for Wes Weaver, the co-applicant of the conditional use permit to allow residential use at Olde Country Foods. Weaver said the owner of JD Lumber had approached him with concerns that were addressed by council, such as the single residential use and potential noise.

“You covered all of his questions, and he just asked me to relay that he is OK with it as long as that is addressed,” Weaver said.

The conditional use can not go into effect until the ordinance to allow residential uses in the industrial zone is approved, signed and published. Therefore, no decision on the conditional use permit was made by council last week, as a decision on the ordinance will also come back to council on Aug. 5.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.